Xane regretted everything. He knew going into this that he would regret doing so. Learning something new was always hard. He thought it would be because of his new teacher Warren. Because of his failings. A whipping or a ruler slap? However it wasn’t any of that. He regretted it because Lyenn was the most infuriating person. She got bored within the first ten minutes. Xane thought he could deal with her boredom. He could for the first few hours.

“We will start with the easier of the two. Enchanting. What do you know about it? Do you know the differences?” She said this much calmer and less hotty than previous engagement. The linger of perpetual annoyance was still there.

Xane answered quickly from what he had read in his book and what he had been told summarizing it. “Enchanting is pouring in mana to form a specific task for that mana to do. Runesmithing uses written power that allows mana to flow through them to do a specific task.”

“A bit basic but better than most. The true difference that Enchanting takes in one's personal mana. A signature of life. Enchantments are alive in minute ways. Some more than others. Runesmithing is as you said. See it as more of a written order that commands mana to cause an effect to occur. Combining the two is called Artificing. A hard and rare way of doing things. I see you have a ring of excellent quality that follows that path and must be powerful indeed.”

This information was something he didn’t know. Well he knew that Hatchet was alive due to a curse and was in an enchanted axe but didn’t know that all enchantments were alive. “What do you mean that enchantments are alive?”

“Truly all mana is alive in some way. But Enchanting uses stored mana in you that has your flavor of mana. No enchantments are the same. Two enchanters of equal level and stats could use the same enchantment but have varying stats on whatever they enchant. It is due to one's flavor of mana wanting to do it or not. Think of Enchanting as forcing mana to do stuff by willpower and Runesmithing as having innate power of words do it for you.” She helpfully replied. “Truly this is a newer subject of study only in the past 60 years. But our understanding is mana is alive and does what it wants unless told otherwise. Theory though isn’t part of today's lesson so let's begin with a simple enchant.”

That cleared things up by throwing another pile of questions on. Those he would ask later. Warren took out a simple looking dagger, an empty parchment and some dust in a small pouch. “Your first step is to have something you want to enchant. Different objects and materials have higher stability than others allowing stronger enchantments. Other objects and materials won’t except types of enchantments at all. Like a wooden sword and a fire enchantment.”

“Let me guess the sword would just burn away?”

“You better hope it does. Normally it just explodes. Now your second thing is an enchantment you want to use. There are a few ways to learn these. First is trial and error. Through learning different types of mana like elemental, hardness, strength, sharpness. Second option is to be taught it by someone who knows it and is at a high enough level in their profession to do so. Lastly there are scrolls that can teach you them. It is the most expensive since the materials that need to go into such things as scrolls and books are rare. They are however drops in dungeons.” Dungeons were something he learned about recently but pushed that off questions for later.

She handed out the piece of paper “Now stand still for a moment. This might hurt.” She took both hands and placed them on opposite sides of my head. They were surprisingly soft and cold. That was until what felt like a jolt of electricity coursed through his mind. An instant feeling of when he used up all his mana formed, reeling him back in his chair. He was out for moments that felt like minutes. “Good you didn’t pass out. Teaching spells and knowledge is always tasking on the mind.”

Xane was about to say “Why didn’t she warn me!” But realized she did. Just not how painful it was going to be. “I’m go-” Similar to when he learned the spell from the book, just way less painful, he just now knew how to do something he never knew how to do before. Without training, without any sort of pre knowledge. It was insane. If they could do that back home he knew it would be the most sought after thing. “Man that doesn’t get old.”

“Indeed the rush of knowing something is quite nice. Now follow the instructions given to you and put the enchantment into this parchment. I’m going to go eat.” She said walking off giving no more instructions.

This will be easy. Xane thought not knowing the trials ahead. Ok first you form mana bands on your finger tips. That didn’t sound too hard. He tried just thinking about mana forming on his fingers. Of course nothing happened. Apparently knowing something and actually being able to do it was two different things. He knew that he just had to will it. Just coax the mana in him to gather in one spot. The problem was controlling the mana. Nothing in the knowledge he got gave him the answer. This is probably a test. He thought excitedly. He liked challenges and puzzles. Was he good because you just remembered patterns and then used those patterns to solve the new puzzle. Yes. But that thought did solve his problem. He needed to look at other patterns.

With a hesitant thought he used the lowest form of his x-ray vision on himself. Peering inside of himself was weird and a bit nauseating. However he saw what he needed to see. Like veins he saw mana pulsating through his body. He followed it around for about 15 minutes just learning its functions and how it worked. That is when he found it. Near his heart was a new organ of sorts that held the mana. Lyenn told him that it was usually called the mana pool and didn’t exist really but also did. Not wanting to be confused he just thanked her for the information. She had been quiet for the most part, just a giggle here and there.

Another few minutes of pondering gave him the ah ha moment. He saw a stream of mana going towards his head. It was way more than anywhere else but with his crude way of seeing it he didn’t notice. Of course he couldn’t follow it all the way up but he knew why it moved. It was his x-ray skill using the mana. Why it took so long was lack of knowledge and the extreme mana consumption of the skill. It didn’t cost as much on low settings but still drained him forcing him to use it sparingly. So all I need to do is try and form a spell of sorts and it would go to my hands. Trying this he half cast mana ammunition. His fingers had a tingly sensation as the mana gathered and then he tried to form the bands he so desired. All that happened was it faded away and the mana just lost. However he knew he was on the right track and kept going. Lyenn laughing the entire time.

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It took Xane another hour before he got it down. Like a puppet master he had strings of mana hanging from his fingertips. Next step was to use those tendrils to force mana into the parchment at many points while also trying to only let a certain type of mana to go through. In this case it was just normal mana and was to allow the parchment to more easily handle magical ink. Slowly Xane had mana course- POP. The paper just disappeared, a quiet popping noise and dust was all that was left. Another parchment floated out of nowhere landing right where the last one previously was. “If you wanted dust then you are great at this.” Lyenn unhelpfully added to the mess. Shut up. Was his only response.

“I’m bored.” POP. “try a bit slower-” POP. “Really you should.” POP

Shut up Lyenn who here has actually hands to do this with.

“Geez dude low blow.” she genuinely sounded hurt by the remark but Xane didn’t care. Here ever present talking, laughing, and sometimes breathing of all things. Was getting on his nerves.

Can you just sit back for a while?

“I know you need to be stronger to get my body back but I really hate boring enchanting. It takes sooo long. Why don’t you find a better profession to go for? Something less dull.” She pouted.

No.

“Yeah you wouldn’t be that good at dancing anyways would you.”

Dancing is a- nevermind.

It took him another two hours after learning what to do to finish. Just don’t think about the hundred or so casualties of paperkind. The trick was to evenly spread out the tendrils of mana over the object so as to not clump up the mana too much. If it did clump up it would explode. “I did it.” Xane cried out. His mind was toast. And his belly screamed at him to get food. Food didn’t Warren leave to just get food why wasn’t she back yet. Xane had just realized how long he had been sitting there in the first place. Seeing no one around he quickly took out a piece of bread he swiped from the inn and ate it. Or he would have if it didn’t just float away. “What the hell?” The bread quickly disappeared around a corner. Before Xane could react Warren appeared with the bread in hand.

“Congrats on finishing your first one.” As she said this dread formed in Xane’s mind as a box floated out filled with parchments. “I need 99 more where that came from. Here, have an apple way healthier. Get going, haven’t got all day.” It was in fact an apple, one of the few things he found to be similar when it came to foods as earth. At least until he took a bit. It was the most sour thing he had ever tried. Hungry though he ate the entire thing. Core and all. He wasn’t proud of that moment.

A crescendo of pops and moments of triumph reverberated through the building as failure after success occurred. He spent the better half of a day doing the task he was given. To entertain Lyenn he let her pseudo watch movies he had watched previously through his memory. It was odd just thinking about it but it didn’t drain his mental capabilities so he allowed it. She thought pirates of the caribbean was a dumb movie. Xane thought about purging her from my mind right then and there. She did like the few romance ones Xane had watched since his mom was in them. “Your mother is beautiful.” She said slowly as Xane was taking a need break. “Do you miss her?”

Xane didn’t know what to say to that. “I do. But I don’t. We didn’t part ways on the best of terms. They didn’t even know I left till after I did. Well at least if they took the time to read the note I left. Chances are they never found that. I really don’t want to talk about it.” Xane testily replied.

When he finished Warren came back a cup of hot tea in hand. “Faster than I thought. You did well. The parchment you wasted wasn’t cheap though. Free labor is free labor.” She said this with her deadpan stare. “Learning the basics of pushing your mana into an object is truly the hardest thing to learn. Your speed brings hope that this isn’t a waste of a favor.” Next I want you to start with the next enchantment that I taught you. This time it exploding should not be a problem but if so don’t bleed all over my floor.”

Xane looked down at the dagger that had been put there hours ago and thought of the other enchantment he was taught. It was a lesser durability enchantment. He basically had to do the same thing as the paper with a slight twist. Instead of just imbuing he had to make sure the mana was following a certain path that would strengthen the object. Also he needed to sprinkle on the crystal powder which was apparently a catalyst. “Ok ok. Let's do this.”

“Yeah yeah be quiet this is a great scene.”

Be quiet?! This is my own mind. I will take away movie privileges.

“Wait, fine you do, you just don’t take away my movies.” She begged with a hint of golem in her voice. Barnsley had forced him to binge watch most of the lord of the rings. One of the few sources of information he was taking from to understand this world. It was usually wrong but still useful. Lyenn thought it was interesting but didn’t watch it yet.

Xane started the process. Tendrils came from his hands as he touched the dagger in multiple spots releasing mana with the intent to strengthen it. He was at it for what felt like only half an hour. That was until his mana bottemout and exhaustion in his mind set in. “Hey why is it getting fuzzy? What are you doing out there?”

“My man-”

“You let yourself run out of mana didn’t you. Really?”

“Shut up not like you are helping.” Xane complained, holding his head.

“Well I don’t know a lot about enchanting but I assume if it's like ritual magic it slowly drains if not kept under control. Better pay attention.” she added another part as if an afterthought. “Or it gets out of control and explodes. Now that I think of it most things explode. Huh”

Xane downed a mana regeneration potion. His last one. His mana ticked back up and he paid attention back to the dagger. He formed his mana tendrils again and carefully went back to where he was. When he was almost bottomed out again another hour later he finished. “That took so much.” he huffed out. He knew he had insane stats so why was it so hard to do. This day was so draining that he passed out.